Newmarket sets date for ‘Way Back’

Peter Weir's prison drama set for awards-qualifying run

Newmarket Films announced it will release Peter Weir’s prison drama “The Way Back” for an awards-qualifying run on Dec. 29 in Los Angeles.

Pic, the first production for Exclusive Media Group through its Newmarket subsidiary and distrib partner Wrekin Hill, will expand to some 500 engagements Jan. 21.

“The Way Back” had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, where the film was a popular ticket and Weir was a fest honoree.

Based on Slavomir Rawicz’s novel “The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom,” the film centers on a group of prisoners who escape from a Siberian gulag in 1940. Ed Harris, Jim Sturgess, Saoirse Ronan, Mark Strong and Colin Farrell star.

National Geographic Entertainment and Imagenation Abu Dhabi co-produced as part of their joint production agreement.